Leather cutting jig updated

[JamesR]

I ungraded my old jig to this long version.  It will cut 45 1/2" with on motion.

The cutter is made from a mat cutting device. I attached it to a piece of polyethylene (UHMW)

The poly is grooved to fit snuggly in a 48" extruded aluminum track. It slides easily with no side play and the cutter stays perpendicular to the cut.

[JamesR]

       

This jig I use for cutting parallel strips of leather for wallet sized projects. There is a fixed fence parallel to the cutting track. I have spacers precut for various widths I want. All I have to do is push the straight edge of my leather against the spacer  and I will get the exact width noted on the spacer. It gives me parallel edges with repeatability

[DieselTech]

One word! OK 2 words!! Nicely Done!

[dikman]

Very neat. The cutting track looks like a heavier duty version of the one I have for cutting paper?

Edit: ok I just saw your first post, now I see how it works.

Edited October 19, 2024 by dikman

[Northmount]

@JamesR Merged your 2 posts.  You can post additional post on the first post so you can maintain 1 thread.  You can also edit your posts within a time window.  Noticed one yesterday where the window was 6 hours.  I thought it would just be a couple hours.

[RockyAussie]

Good thinking on that setup.

[Mulesaw]

Great setup!

[Doc Reaper]

But where did you get that aluminum track, and what did you cut the poly with??? Be specific as possible, hell, make a video and explain the blade holder too

Edited October 20, 2024 by Doc Reaper
I'm unsupervised

[JamesR]

Doc,

Larger track:

https://www.woodpeck.com/woodpeckers-combo-track.html

Smaller track:

https://www.ptreeusa.com/ttrack_track.html

 Blade holder:

https://www.amazon.com/Logan-701-1-Straight-Matboard-Foamboard/dp/B004P2ZTQE/ref=pd_rhf_se_s_pd_sbs_rvi_d_sccl_2_5/147-1311013-7953325?pd_rd_w=U7tWb&content-id=amzn1.sym.46e2be74-be72-4d3f-86e1-1de279690c4e&pf_rd_p=46e2be74-be72-4d3f-86e1-1de279690c4e&pf_rd_r=5DQA5DM199PWNSQRE3YY&pd_rd_wg=Bfla7&pd_rd_r=b1ef44b9-3fa8-46d2-a950-9580fb74827e&pd_rd_i=B004P2ZTQE&psc=1

I removed the blade holding portion of the device and screwed it to the poly block. The poly block grooves can be cut with a table saw or a router.

The poly is very smooth which allows it to press down the leather right at the cutting edge which keeps the cut angle perpendicular. The smoothness of the poly leaves no marking on the leather. All edges are rounded over to prevent scratching the leather. 

The trickiest part is cutting/routing the grooves in the poly so there is no slide play when the cutter is moved.

The poly can be purchased from various suppliers;

https://www.amazon.com/JOIKIT-Molecular-Polyethylene-Standard-Tolerance/dp/B09LV5MZNS

There are others though. Search:  UHMWpe The stuff is dense and has very low friction. It slides like it is lubricated.

When I can I will take more photos of the board with the threaded bolt attachment.

 

 

 

Edited October 20, 2024 by JamesR
Not complete

[JamesR]

Northmount,

Thank you

JamesR

[Lil Doodler]

Great job putting that together!

A while ago, when Hobby Lobby still had 40% off coupons, I bought a Logan 450-1 mat cutter for straight cutting leather. I found that sometimes the veg-tan would slip when making long cuts. To fix that, I put some anti-slip tape under the straight edge. The tape was too wide, so I had to trim it to fit. Works good now.

If you have slippage problems, here's what I used: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MKG5BRF/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[JamesR]

Lil Doodler,

Yes I did have those problems initially so I decided to fix the aluminum track to the cutting board with bolts fastened from underneath through the top into Tee-nuts.

I also use threaded knobs to allow me to clamp the track down on top of the leather to prevent movement. I found that the aluminum is very smooth so it does not

leave impressions in the leather and the knobs keep everything fixed in place.

Although the anti-slip tape might be a good addition. Thank you